Celeriac & Hazelnut Soup | Vegetarian & Vegan

Recipe: Celeriac & Hazelnut Soup

Hello again! I hope you all had a restful and jolly Christmas break, and are still in holiday-mode until after the New Year festivities.  Party season is still in full swing, of course, and if you’re entertaining over the next few weeks and looking for a dinner party starter or light lunch that looks impressive, tastes incredible but is actually super-simple to put together, this Celeriac & Hazelnut Soup will be right up your street.

Celeriac is one of those brilliant root vegetables which magically transforms to a velvet-smooth soup when puréed.  You can pair it with all sorts of festive flavours – leftover chestnut purée, apple or pear, fresh herbs or watercress, mustard, and many more – but here I decided to experiment with sweet hazelnut milk and crunchy chopped hazelnuts as a garnish, and it worked really well.
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Ultimate Vegan Mince Pies

Recipe: The Ultimate Vegan Mince Pies (with Cream ‘Cheese’ Pastry)

I hadn’t planned to post so close to Christmas, but these mince pies were just too tasty not to share!  I’ve always loved homemade cream cheese pastry as the ‘ultimate’ pastry for mince pies, as it is rich, crumbly, sweet and totally delicious, and this year decided to have a go at making a vegan version.

It really isn’t rocket science, as good quality dairy-free cream cheese is now so readily-available in most supermarkets.  Substitute in a good dairy-free block margarine in place of butter and dairy-free milk as a glaze, and Bob’s your uncle.

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Easy Beetroot & Hazelnut Mincemeat

Recipe: Easy Beetroot & Hazelnut Mincemeat

You might think it is fairly late in the day to start making your own homemade mincemeat, but look carefully at the recipe details below…. cook time = 0 mins, prep time = 10 mins, (and even that is a generous estimate, I’m sure you could do it in 5 if you put your mind to it!).

This really is a cheat’s quick and easy way to make your own mincemeat, and couldn’t be easier.  The addition of beetroot and hazelnuts are my little twists to make sure people definitely know it is homemade, (there’s no point replicating the ingredients of shop-bought mincemeat exactly or you might as well just go and buy some!), but also because they add in turn a sweet earthiness, a bright festive pink colour, and a lovely sweet crunch.

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Orange & Maple Carrots

Christmas Dinner Recipe: Orange & Maple Carrots

Vegetarian & Vegan Christmas Dinner RecipesHere’s the final recipe in this four-part series for an easy-peasy prep-ahead Vegetarian & Vegan Christmas Dinner.  There are still a few more festive treats to come next week, but this completes the main course ideas!

Carrots just have to be there on the Christmas table, but are rarely given much attention, as just another vegetable to peel, chop and boil.  Here I’ve tried something a little different, cooking them quickly in just enough water to part-boil, part-steam them, then finishing with a sweet and fruity orange and maple glaze

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Ginger & Sesame Brussels Sprouts

Christmas Dinner Recipe: Ginger & Sesame Brussels Sprouts

Vegetarian & Vegan Christmas Dinner RecipesYou can’t have Christmas Dinner without a bowl of sprouts, but let’s face it, when boiled and soggy they really do live up to Nigel Slater’s scathing description: “Why are you even thinking of buying a bag of pungent, watery balls that give you wind?”.

However, here’s a method of cooking which I’ve found transforms them into something completely different. Crunchy, with golden crispy edges and flavoured with ginger and sesame seeds, there’s absolutely nothing stinky about these little beauties!

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Garlic & Rosemary Roast Potatoes

Christmas Dinner Recipe: Garlic & Rosemary Roast Potatoes

Vegetarian & Vegan Christmas Dinner RecipesHere’s the second in the recipe series for the easy, prep-ahead Veggie & Vegan Christmas Dinner.  Today, we’re looking at arguably the most important part of any festive feast, the roast potatoes.

There’s nothing fancy or high-tech going on here, just a simple but failsafe method for perfectly crispy roast potatoes, infused with traditional flavours of garlic and rosemary.

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Porcini & Chestnut Wreath Roasts

Christmas Dinner Recipe: Porcini & Chestnut Mini Wreath Roasts

Vegetarian & Vegan Christmas Dinner RecipesI’ve yet to meet anyone who actually wants to spend their whole Christmas morning faffing about in the kitchen, so to take the stress out of festive cooking, I’ve put together an easy, prep-ahead Christmas Dinner menu which is both vegetarian and vegan, and will be posting it over the course of this week.

To kick things off, these pretty Porcini & Chestnut Mini Wreath Roasts make a lovely centrepiece for the Christmas table, served with Creamy Porcini & Parsley Gravy (for which the recipe is also below – make sure you scroll right down to the bottom of the post for both recipes!).

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Recipe: The Ultimate Vegan Christmas Cake (Part 2)

Ultimate Vegan Christmas CakeWhat a brilliant response there has been to ‘Part 1‘ of this post – a recipe for the ‘Ultimate Vegan Christmas Cake‘.  It seems that quite a few of you have made the cake, and have been eagerly awaiting instructions on how to marzipan, sugarpaste and decorate it – so here goes.

My own cake has been sitting patiently in a tin on top of the fridge, double-wrapped in baking parchment, and being fed regularly with amaretto.  Living the dream!  The waft of boozy, fruity cake is getting stronger each time I open the lid, in eager anticipation of Christmas.

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